JI to take out 'million march' against US Jerusalem move in Karachi today

KARACHI: To express solidarity with people of Palestine, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has organised a rally in the city today (Sunday) to protest against United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The rally has been named as ‘Al-Quds’, which will be taken out on University Road.

JI Amir Sirajul Haq had earlier said that his party would make all-out efforts to bring the masses on roads in solidarity with oppressed Muslims of Palestine while anticipating a ‘large’ gathering.

He then said that the Trump had put the global peace in danger after Jerusalem move.

“Trump’s decision will add fuel to the fire,” he asserted while announcing countrywide protests.

Earlier this month, Trump abruptly reversed decades of U.S. policy this month when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, generating outrage from Palestinians. Trump also plans to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

‘Bomb’ thrown at Mideast

Soon after Trump announced his decision, the riots erupted in West Bank and Gaza. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets and a few thousand clashed with Israeli forces along different parts of the border.

On Friday, four Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded in clashes with Israeli forces as they demonstrated against Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Palestinian health ministry said 164 people were injured in Gaza, with five in serious condition, and more than 100 were hospitalised in the West Bank.

Israel’s army said around 2,500 people were involved in “riots” in the West Bank and about 3,500 in Gaza.

Friday’s deaths brought to eight the number of Palestinians killed in violence or air strikes since Trump’s Jerusalem move.

Four men were killed in Gaza last week, two in protests. Two Hamas militants were killed in an Israeli air strike.

Support for uprising

In Jordan, thousands of people also demonstrated on Friday in the latest round of protests called by the Muslim Brotherhood, burning Israeli and American flags.

The diplomatic fallout continued, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling Trump’s decision a “bomb” thrown at the entire Middle East.

He called Israel a “terror state” and said: “Trying to make Jerusalem capital of a terror state is not a situation that can be accepted by Muslims.”

The status of Jerusalem is one of the most controversial issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war and sees the whole of Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The Palestinians view the east as the capital of their future state.